Who is DIA?

Immigrant Dignity in Athens:

Our Vision

Highlight the Cultural and Economic contributions that Undocumented Immigrants make to the United States. Enhancing cultural contribution, language, music, food, art, poetry. etc. and all the elements that enrich this nation.

Our Mission:

DIA is an organization, organism or group our mission is to create and/or promote spaces for the liberation of the undocumented Families living in USA. We seek this liberation through Culture and Activism.

We Declare:

We reflect and honor the dignity of a community of many people formed by many nationalities, races and different cultures, which is in constant process of redefinition in the search for an identity.

Throughout history, our ancestors were stripped of their lands by invaders from Europe. Our ancestors were given a different culture, unknown languages, foreign laws, religions, and gods outside these lands. All this imposed against their will and through the psychological, physical and partial or total extermination of many people, which were subdued by the people originally from these lands, on the continent which is now known as America. Over the centuries and after many generations, we have assimilated that culture (that culture) without losing the roots of our Indigenous cultures, resulting in a new culture.

America’s new colonizers, who have impose laws that benefit their interests and the interests of their descendants, thus to maintain the economic and political power of these lands. For example,through slavery, the slaves brought from Africa were stripped away from their motherland and put to work to death. As also the subjugation, extermination of the Native Americans and the stripping of their lands. Today this power is maintained through racism (understood as part of a system of oppression), which guarantees cheap labor, economic problems and barriers. This so that the political economic system, under which undocumented immigrants are exploited, can function.

Immigrants from this continent, are denied the right to come as immigrants to the USA, for many years they were only considered for labor. Today they have built laws and restrictions, to prevent workers on this continent from being able to come legally to work and if they are already in the national territory, their presence is criminalized by unfair and punitive laws. For this reason…

Because every human being has the right to a dignified life, *(result of the product of his work.) *is taken away by vote.

We believe that every human being has the right to a life of dignity, that recognizes the value of their effort, work and contributions to society. We demand that fundamental rights to education, work, housing, and family (love), be safeguarded for all human beings, regardless of their migration status, race, or gender.

We demand that the criminalization of undocumented immigrants, and by extension of their families, be stopped.

We demand that the rights to education, work, housing and family (love) be restored to all human beings regardless of their Immigration Status, Religion, Social Class, Race or Gender.

We demand recognition of the social, economic, cultural contribution that undocumented immigrants have made for many years to the United States.

We demand that the United States assume its responsibility for the impoverishment of Latin American countries caused mainly by multinational corporations through inequitable free-market treaties, which take advantage of workers to feed monopolies, bankers and corporations.

We demand that the U.S. assumes its responsibility in the war for drug trafficking, which is sustained with mainly American weaponry, drugs are destined for the American market and as a result thousands of people are displaced from their communities, hundreds of thousands have lost their lives and hundreds of thousands disappeared.

We demand that the U.S. assume stake in the imposition of governments in Latin America. from the condor operation that put Pinochet as dictator, his intervention and Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, the economic embargo on Cuba, the appropriation of Puerto Rico and many other countries affected by the U.S. foreign police and militarization in these countries such as Mexico and Colombia.

We demand to stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants and the criminalization of their families.

We reject the creation of new laws aimed at criminalizing immigrants as a solution to the immediate problems of the community in Athens and throughout the National Territory

We demand to disassociate the Migration phenomenon from national security language.

We demand that undocumented immigrants be treated as refugees and not as criminals or terrorists.

Summary of our Organization:

Our mission is to create and promote spaces for the liberation of undocumented immigrants in the United States. We seek this liberation through education, celebration of culture, and activism. Our vision is to reflect the honor and dignity of a pueblo, formed of many nationalities, races, and cultures, that rejects the discriminatory laws that criminalize and dehumanize undocumented immigrants. We work toward recognition of the long history of social, economic, and cultural contributions made by immigrants, undocumented and documented. We believe every human being has the fundamental rights to education, employment, housing, and family as well right to a life of dignity and respect which we attempt to safeguard for all members of our community, regardless of their migration status.